1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to image processing devices, image processing methods, and information recording media.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a image processing device such as a copier, facsimile, printer and multiple function processing apparatus having functions of the copier, facsimile, and printer, there are devices or methods for easily adding data conversion functions for inputting or outputting an image correlating to a newly added device.
For example, Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application Publication No. 2001-356895 describes an image processing method wherein a single job is divided at units having different sizes such as a binder, document, page and band.
Because of this, a process for corresponding to a format of in put data and a format of output data is selectively executed by selecting the unit. When a process of a job correlating to data having new formats is formed, a process of a unit correlating to a range related to contents of the process may be formed.
In addition, for example, Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application Publication No. 2005-176159 describes a multiple function processing apparatus wherein a job is divided by a time axis, the order of a process being input is recognized as an operation of a document, and functional operation is realized by a module combining an input document, a user document and an output document. Thus, it is possible to easily make a module of a part common to the functional operation common in the time axis so that a software structure not influenced by adding or changing the function can be realized.
However, in the method described in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application Publication No. 2001-356895, although the unit for dividing the job can be changed, when a process corresponding to a new format is added for adding a new function or making a new version of the function, it is necessary to form a process for converting plural other formats.
For example, in the multiple function processing apparatus having functions of the copier, facsimile, scanner, printer, or network interface, when the functions of the multiple function processing apparatus are added or a new version of the functions are made, a process corresponding to other functions of the multiple function processing apparatus should be formed.
However, as the number of the functions of the multiple function processing apparatus is increased, the number of processes to be newly formed is increased corresponding to the number of combinations. In the technique discussed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application Publication No. 2001-356895, while making the range of the subject to be processed small is considered, reducing the number of the subjects to be processed is not considered.
In the multiple function processing apparatus described in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application Publication No. 2005-176159, the input document or the output document is divided into a common part and a different part and only the different part is changed in order to correspond to adding the functions. However, if the common part is changed due to the newly added document, it is necessary to change all the related documents. In addition, in a case where a delivery method of data from the input document to the user document or from the user document to the output document is changed due to adding the functions, it is necessary to change all of related documents. The technique described in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application Publication No. 2005-176159 does not consider about the correspondence to these changed.